Monte Rosa Therapeutics reported positive Phase 1 GFORCE-1 results for MRT-8102 in 108 obese subjects with elevated cardiovascular risk randomized to once-daily 5 mg, 20 mg, or 40 mg doses or placebo for four weeks, with four weeks of follow-up.
According to the company, MRT-8102 produced robust and sustained NEK7 degradation with a median reduction of approximately 80 to 90% across doses. It reduced multiple plaque-associated damage-associated molecular patterns and cytokines toward healthy volunteer levels. Median reductions reported included calprotectin 56%, S100A12 46%, SAA 51%, HMGB1 40% and IL-1β 37% in subjects with top-quartile baseline values.
Systemic biomarkers and thrombogenic factors were also lowered, with median IL-6 and hsCRP reductions of 54% and 85%, fibrinogen reduced by 28%, and lipoprotein(a) reduced by 24% without increases in LDL-C or triglycerides.
MRT-8102 was well tolerated with no serious adverse events and treatment-emergent adverse event rates similar to placebo (33% versus 30%) and no evidence of increased infection risk.
The company expects to initiate Phase 2 studies GFORCE-2 in H1 2027, GEMINI-1 in Q4 2026 or Q1 2027, and GALAXY-1 in H1 2027.
